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Citigroup Accused Of Predatory Lending… To A Private Equity Firm!

Written on December 12, 2009 – 10:27 am | by Admin

PE Firm Terra Firma is suing Citigroup (C) for facilitating its acquisition of music label EMI during the PE boom years.

Of course, that acquisition turned out to be a disaster — like so many deals done in the age of cheap money.

In otherwords, Terra Firma is basically accusing Citi of being a predatory lender.

NYT: In its complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court, Terra Firma says that it was essentially tricked into paying £4 billion, or $6.5 billion, for EMI in May 2007, near the height of the private equity boom. The private equity firm and its chairman, Guy Hands, have since been criticized for paying too high a price for the music publisher only months before the credit markets began to implode.

Citigroup has also been criticized for lending billions of pounds to the deal — a loan it was unable to resell as planned when the debt markets faltered.

Terra Firma and Citigroup have since been locked in a struggle over control of EMI. Ma

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Tags: Firm

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8 Reasons to Convert to a Roth IRA

Written on December 12, 2009 – 7:47 am | by Admin

As most people know by now, the $100,000 income limit on the ability to convert a traditional IRA to a tax-free Roth IRA will disappear next year.  In addition, a taxpayer who does a conversion in 2010 can pay the tax due from the conversion in 2011 and 2011.  There are innumerable articles about Roth conversions and the math involved, with many differing opinions about the advisability of converting.  Bottom line, make sure you hire the appropriate professionals to crunch the numbers and otherwise advise you before making a decision.  You really need to consult your financial advisor, CPA and estate planning attorney to ensure that you are fully informed.

Here’s a quick list from tax guru Bob Keebler, CPA:

(1)  Taxpayers have special favorable tax attributes including charitable deduction carry-forwards, investment tax credits, high basis non-deductible traditional IRAs, etc.

(2)  Suspension of the minimum distribution rules at age 70½ provides a considerable advantage to the Roth IRA holder.

(3)  Taxpayers benefit from paying income tax before estate tax (when a Roth IRA election is made) compared to the income tax deduction obtained when a traditional IRA is subject to estate tax.

(4)  Taxpayers who can pay the income tax on the IRA from non-IRA funds benefit greatly from the Roth IRA because of the ability to enjoy greater tax-free yields.

(5)  Taxpayers who need to use IRA assets to fund their Unified Credit bypass trust are well advised to consider making a Roth IRA election for that portion of their overall IRA funds.

(6) Future distributions to beneficiaries are generally tax-free.

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Tags: Ira, Roth Ira

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The Loan Modification Program Is A Great Deal For Homeowners.

Written on December 12, 2009 – 4:52 am | by Admin

There is nothing as desired and as important as loan modification program for a great deal of homeowners. It is hard to find a person who would not suffer from the severe conditions in which the economy is nowadays. There are almost no ways to find financial aid with the help of which it would be possible to handle the shortage of money. That is why there are so many people who face foreclosure and appear in the street without any means for survival and without any hopes for better life. If you would like to avoid such unpleasant outcome it is much better to try hard to find some salvations to the problem. In fact there is no need to try hard in order to find the way out. All you have to do is to ask your bank agent to help you.

There are several options which you can choose. Depending on the situation you may choose to refinance your mortgage or to use the advantage of the advantage of the governmental program with the help of which you will be able to rearrange the terms of your loan and to make it affordable.

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Tags: Great Deal, Homeowners, Loan Modification Program, Modification Program

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Which Comes First: Plan or Pitch?

Written on December 12, 2009 – 4:48 am | by Admin

It’s not exactly the same as the chicken or the egg, but it has some similarities.

I get this question a lot lately, so I decided to take it here to my blog.

Don’t pitch a business without planning it first. That’s a lot like trying to film a movie without having a screenplay. You have to know what’s going to happen before you start.

And I do see people, websites, even some smart people and good websites, confusing the issue by presenting a pitch as if it were something you could do without having a plan. Sorry, bad idea.

Yes, you can summarize a business idea without detail. You can summarize a strategy. Maybe you can put up a picture of a business model, and focus on a target market, and narrow the business offering. And that’s certainly a useful exercise. But it’s just a concept piece, a rough sketch.

Before you have a pitch you simply must have a rough idea of estimated startup costs, sales, expenses, and cash flow. Without that

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Tags: Pitch

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Discount clients to start trading

Written on December 9, 2009 – 1:56 pm | by Admin

Some 80,000 equities investors under the collapsed Discount Securities can soon resume trading after their shares were formally migrated to the custody of Co-operative Bank of Kenya, in a tripartite agreement on Wednesday.

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This ends a painful wait for the investors, whose fate has been uncertain since the broker became the third intermediary to go under.

It also potentially solidifies the incursion of commercial banks into share trading, and signals the end of the Discount business.

Under the agreement between Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Co-op Bank and Discount Securities, still under statutory management, the bank will provide central depository agency and custodial services to the customers.

CMA placed Discount under statutory management on March 16, 2009. Subsequently, it was excluded from central depository services, which locked out its Central Depository System (CDS) accountholders from share transactions.

The market regulator early this year advertised for transfer of these accounts to an active CDS agent with Co-operative Bank winning the tender.

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Tags: Trading

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